Asuka's Fairy Tail Adventure
by Mashara125
Summary: Alzack and Bisca go together on an overnight request for the first time since the birth of their daughter- Asuka. But is Fairy Tail ready for the tough challenge of looking after one energetic and adventurous toddler? Features all FT guild members...
1. Chapter 1

**This story is another creation that comes from discussion on MF's Official Romance Thread and you will recognize some of our signature crack couples (Brax Love!3)****. One day we asked ourselves, what would happen if they had to look after a child for one day? What kind of things would happen? Thus the idea for this fanfic was born. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this fanfic, they are property of Fairy Tail and Hiro Mashima. I bow to him for allowing me to use them in the expression of my creativity *bows* Thank you :)**

* * *

Little Asuka Connell loved hanging out in the guild hall during the day. It was always fun when all her Fairy Tail Aunts and Uncles where around doing silly things and ever since the new people had come there were even more things to do and see. Sometimes it would be sticking something up the nose of somebody sleeping soundly on the floor (which was silly, who sleeps on the floor?) or it was watching from under one of the tables as they started playing a big game of tag (why else would they be hitting each other with chairs, stools or anything else that wasn't nailed down?). Other times it would be watching Uncle Max talking to the kitchen broom when he thought no one was watching or it was convincing the black teddy bear with a cat tail to play dress up or ride ponies with her. Whatever she did at the guild hall, each day was a new adventure and she was excited when her Mommy and Daddy let her stay there.

* * *

This one particular day Bisca and Alzack were preparing for a mission that was going to take them at least two days to finish. They didn't like to be away for that long ever since the birth of their daughter, but this job was going to pay really well and required their special sharp shooting talents.

"I don't know Al," Bisca started as they walked to the rundown windmill that was currently being used as Fairy Tail's guild hall. "We haven't left her overnight yet without at least one of us being there, what if she gets scared? And I don't know if the guild is the best place to leave her for that long, what if she gets crushed from a flying chair when they start one of their fights?"

When Asuka heard about the possibility of flying chairs she started giggling and kicking her legs so that her Dad would put her down. When he did, she took off at a run towards the guild hall as fast as her little legs could take her, laughing the entire way. Her parents looked at each and then Alzack shrugged.

"Something tells me that she is going to be ok… Mira and Kinana said they would watch her at the guild during the day and Mira is going to take her home for the night. Max said if things get busy he is going to be around for the next few days too. He watches her all the time."

"Only if he keeps his mind off that damn broom," Bisca muttered to herself as they started walking again. "He thinks we don't know…"

"Shhh, Bisca," Alzack interrupted quietly. "We promised as a guild we wouldn't say anything to Max about the broom."

"I know, I know," she replied grumpily as they walked through the guildhall doors. "It's just weird, that's all."

They looked around the room for their daughter and found her sitting on a table next to Cana's half empty keg; the card mage was currently having a half-drunken argument with an already shirtless Gray while Asuka clapped her hands and laughed in encouragement.

"Dear God," Bisca mumbled holding a hand to her face. "What are we doing? It's not even eight in the morning yet…"

Alzack chose to not respond and instead led his wife over to the bar to let Mirajane know they were dropping Asuka off before she changed her mind about going. Then they gave their daughter hugs and kisses before they had to leave to catch their train.

"Mommy loves you very much," Bisca told her daughter as she squeezed her like she didn't want to let go.

"I lov-re you, Mummy," Asuka answered with the little air she had left. When Bisca finally set her down, Alzack patted her on the head.

"We will be back tomorrow sweetheart, be good and listen to your Auntie Mira, ok?"

"Ok, Daddy," she answered with big smile. She watched as her parents left the guild hall while calling out goodbyes to everyone there.

Auntie Mira came out from behind the bar and picked the little girl up, "Want to come help me stack drink glasses?" The white haired woman asked with one of her famous smiles. Asuka nodded enthusiastically; finally, the fun was going to start!

* * *

As Alzack and Bisca were leaving the guildhall they were unaware that they were being watched by three men from behind a tree. The three were members of the guild Twilight Ogre and ever since being embarrassingly beaten by Fairy Tail a few weeks before they had been planning their revenge. They had finally come up with the best plan, what better way to get back at them then by kidnapping their smallest member and holding her hostage until Fairy Tail admitted which was the more superior guild. With her parents leaving it would be the best time to snatch the kid, while everyone else was distracted by the normal crazy happenings in Fairy Tail. They just had to wait for the perfect opportunity and then Fairy Tail was going to pay for embarrassing them.

* * *

Back inside the guild, Asuka had already had a busy and fun filled morning. After helping Auntie Mira stack the clean bar glasses, she had gone with Auntie Kinana outside to water the flowers and check and see if there where any strawberries in the garden. Now it was almost lunchtime and most of the guild members (those that weren't out on jobs) were coming in for food. So she sat on the bar with her legs dangling off the edge and "helped" Auntie Mira by repeating all the orders that came in. She also was keeping one eye on the guild hall's door. Asuka knew that any minute the black teddy-cat was going come walking in with his shaggy haired owner and she really wanted to pet the kitty. She got her wish a few minutes later when Lily came in with his Dragon Slayer Master, Gajeel and also the script mage, Levy, who seemed to be arguing with him about something.

"I don't understand why you can't even tell me where you are going," she grumbled to him as they walked up to the bar to order their food.

"Because Shrimp, if I tell you then it wouldn't be a super secret training session, would it? Gi hi hi," he replied smartly while pulling up a chair.

Levy started to turn red and her face became pinched. Uh oh, Asuka thought to herself as she swung her legs back and forth, that is the same look that Mommy gets when she is about to start yelling at Daddy.

Instead of yelling, Levy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine," was all she said as she walked away stiffly. Gajeel raised one studded eyebrow and frowned as he watched the bluenette walk away.

"What's with her?" he asked his cat companion as he motioned for Mira to bring him a beer and some metal from behind the bar. Lily just crossed his small arms and looked up at the Dragon Slayer expectantly, as usual though; he really didn't have a clue.

"What's with you? Why is everyone looking at me like that?" Gajeel stared at his exceed partner with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Never mind," Lily answered with a sigh. "You wouldn't understand anyway."

"The hell I wouldn't!" Gajeel answered as Mira brought him his order, "Common! Tell me!" About that time Asuka got bored with this conversation, she wanted to play with the teddy-cat before they left. Asuka aimed a kick at Gajeel's nearby elbow with one of her little legs and yelled "Down!" expectantly.

Gajeel turned to the little girl with a stunned look on his face as if he was noticing her for the first time. "What?"

"DOWN!" she yelled even louder and kicked him harder in the elbow.

"Ouch! What the…?" he yelped grabbing his throbbing arm.

"I think she wants you to put her down, off the bar," Lily explained to him patiently.

"Why?" Gajeel asked looking down at his cat but not wanting to take his eyes of the kicking toddler.

"Why does it matter, Gajeel, just put her down!" Lily answered sharply. Gajeel lifted his hands to either side of the small girl and then seemed at a loss of what to do next.

"Where do I pick her up?" he asked the cat again.

"What?" answered Lily in a confused voice.

"Where do I put my hands, cat!" he yelled at the exceed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the toddler swing her leg back again for another kick and quickly pulled his arm out of harm's reach. "Hurry before she gets better aim!"

"Under her arms, you idiot," the cat answered back with a smirk. "She's going to start yelling again if you don't do it quickly." Gajeel placed a hand on either shoulder and picked Asuka up like her was something really fragile but really smelly and he didn't want to touch it at the same time.

"I said UNDER the arms, you fool. Don't you dare drop her!" Gajeel placed the child lightly on the floor and then let her go as soon as he knew she was stable. The Dragon Slayer and the exceed both watched her as if she were a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and waited for her to make another move. Instead of going off, she put a big smile on her face and side tackled the small black cat with a childish giggle.

"Teddy-cat!" she exclaimed and started to pet Lily's cute teddy-bear ears. Gajeel let out a bark of laughter and turned back to his food.

"Gi hi hi, looks like she is your problem now, partner."

"Thanks a lot, Gajeel!" Lily let himself be led by the toddler into the corner were all her toys sat. He wouldn't admit it, but the truth was that he loved kids and playing with the little girl was always fun, but he had to keep up his reputation as Fairy Tail's toughest exceed warrior and so he made sure to complain every once and awhile so that people didn't get the wrong idea. Asuka was happy again, even though it had taken that big man forever to do what she told him and even then he didn't do it right, she finally had the black teddy-cat to play with.

* * *

After lunch Asuka found herself sitting back on one of the tables being snuck bites of strawberry short cake from Auntie Erza. Auntie Cana was leaning on her third beer keg of the day but was only slightly slurring her words as she tried to give her red headed guild mate some unwanted romantic advice.

"You just need to get yourself out there, Erza. Just get back on that horse and keep doing… you know… whatever it is that people do on horses…"

"Cana, that does not make any sense. Besides, this is not the time for us to be dilly dallying on silly things like romance. We need to build Fairy Tail back up to its former glory. It is what the Master wishes, and your father." Erza turned back to concentrating on feeding the little girl in front of her, even though Asuka was perfectly capable of eating cake by herself.

"Bahhhh, who cares what those old men want, you need to live a little! You've got a nice body under all that armor, not like we ever get to see it."

Erza felt herself start to blush a little behind the ears. "C-Cana, please don't talk about things like that, especially in front of Asuka."

"Oh, don't be such a stick in the mud; she doesn't understand what we are talking about anyway. You know, armor is kind of your thing, if you can ever find a guy that can get it off of you then you got yourself a keeper. You should hold onto him and never let go," Cana finished with a sigh and leaned into the table.

Erza felt the blush deepen on her face and she dropped the fork with a clatter. "M-my thing? T-Take it off? I don't understand… What is your 'thing'?" she asked curiously, managing to keep the tremor out of her voice.

Cana leaned back again and then had to grab the bench when she almost fell off her seat.

"Hmm, my thing?" she repeated. "I guess that would be drinking. If I can find any man that can out drink me, I may have to marry him!" She let out a cackling laugh and then did actually topple off the bench with an unladylike grace.

"Be careful what you say, Cana," came Mirajane's singsong voice from over Erza's shoulder. "It might just come true some day."

"I don't think we will have to worry about that anytime soon, Mira" Erza answered with a frown. "We haven't seen any man out drink Cana yet."

"There is a first time for everything," Mira gave them one of her signature smiles. "I think that its time for someone's nap, come on sweetie."

Asuka let the barmaid pick her up without a fuss. She was indeed feeling tired after playing ponies with the black teddy-cat for nearly an hour and then eating almost two whole pieces of cake. As Mira cradled her in her arms she started to hum a lullaby softly, rocking the toddler back and forth as she walked on slowly. Asuka snuggled into the white haired mage's arms sleepily and was happy that she smelled like pretty flowers. Mira waited until the little girl had fallen asleep before placing her on the spare cot in the storage room. Usually it was reserved for guild members that had a little too much and weren't able to make it home, it was either the cot or the floor (most of the times the floor won out though). Kinana and Lisanna had found some extra blankets and made it into a really comfortable nest for Asuka to sleep in. Mira tucked her in gently and then kissed her forehead, "Sleep tight, little one." She crept out of the room and closed the door quietly, leaving Asuka to her pleasant dreams.

"Oy!" Came a weak voice from under one of the tables. "One of you guys could have at least helped me up!" Cana called sulkily from where she was stuck. Mira shook her head and went off to start a normal afternoon at Fairy Tail.


	2. Chapter 2

Meanwhile, the three men from the Twilight Ogre guild had been waiting just for a moment like this. They had watched the little girl all morning be passed around from mage to mage, never being left alone for more than a few minutes at a time. But when they were peaking through one of the broken windows in the back of guild hall they saw as Mirajane put Asuka down for her nap in the storage room. This was their perfect chance! All they needed to do now was sneak into the guild undetected, get the girl and get out, and then they were home free. In the early afternoon most of the guild members had cleared out to do their business and only the two pretty barmaids, the drunken girl swaying on one of the benches and the sharp eyed red head remained. They recognized the white haired bar girl and the red head as the two who came to their guild that day to strong arm their Master. They knew they definitely did not want to pick a fight with them and if those girls saw them peeking around they were done for.

"How are we going to do this?" the shortest of them asked the fattest, who was clearly the leader.

"I'll tell you when you need to know!" he said with a growl and the short man shrank down under his glare. The fat tried to think of how to get the four women outside (or at least the three that could stand) and still be able to sneak in and grab the kid.

"I have an idea, boss," the third man whispered after ducking down from peeking in the window, he was so tall though that he had to scrunch low. "How about two of us make a distraction by the front door and when they run out to see what it is, the third one goes into the back room and grabs the kid."

The fat man though about this for a second and then smiled, "Perfect."

* * *

Mira and Kinana were just finishing up the lunch dishes not long after putting Asuka down for her nap and discussing guild gossip.

"When are the Masters supposed to be returning from their meeting?" Kinana asked Mira as she dried a handful of cutlery.

"Tomorrow, or the next day, Master Makarov did not know how long it would take to debrief all the other guild masters about what happened on Tenrou Island. I am glad that former-Master Macao and Wakaba agreed to travel with him; he took so much damage in the battle against Grimoire Heart that I was worried he would have one of his episodes while away," answered Mira as she started stacking plates to put away.

"I don't know how much help they would be, I bet you right now they aren't even at the meeting… they are at some girlie bar instead." When Mira thought about what the blue haired barmaid said, her over-active imagination took over.

"Oh… Master! Just say no!" The white haired woman covered her face with her hands and let out a sob. Kinana let out a surprised gasp and went to comfort the other woman.

"Mira! Mira! I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you think the worst!" Just as she placed her hand on Mirajane's back she heard someone whisper in her ear.

_Kinana!_

She couldn't help but flinch and turn her head towards the sound and as she did Mirajane looked up at the sudden movement.

"Kinana, what's wrong? Did you hear something again?" Ever since they had started working together after Mirajane had returned home from Tenrou Island the two women had become close again. Kinana usually confided in Mira whenever she heard the mysterious voice in her head, which had been happening more and more frequently.

'It's nothing; we should finish these chores before everyone else starts to come back in for the afternoon slug-fest." Mira laughed in agreement and the two women went back to their work. They were almost finished cleaning when they heard a huge explosion followed by a crashing sound coming from outside. They both immediately dropped the dishes they had been holding and made a beeline for the door, followed by Erza who had been polishing her sword quietly at the table. Only Cana remained in the guild hall because she was dozing face down on top of her drinking table, one arm cradling her head and the other had a death grip on the new keg she had waiting for later.

"Stupid Natsu…Gray… Gajeel… shut up…" she mumbled and then fell back to sleep. The short man (who had been assigned by the boss to be the one to kidnap the kid so that he didn't screw up the diversion) waited until he heard her soft snoring start again before pushing open the unlatched broken window. He tried jumping up over the windowsill but because of his height he could barely get one leg over. Finally, after a few tries he made it halfway through the window, but then he felt himself start to fall over. He let go of the window sill frantically and waved his arms to regain his balance, but it was no good. With a not-so-loud thud he fell butt first into the guild hall, smacking his head on the window sill on the way down. He cursed and started rubbing the red mark over his eyes but then froze when he heard Cana mumbling again in her sleep.

"I said SHUT UP… stupid… dragon slayer idiots…just want to…sleep…"she started snoring again and the short man let out a relieved breath. The hard part was over, he thought to himself, now I just have to grab the girl and go out the back door (which he had found was locked so he had to crawl in through that stupid window). He crept to the storage room and pushed on the door softly, but it wouldn't open. He panicked and pushed harder and the door opened a little bit. What the hell is blocking the door? He thought to himself again and finally he opened it enough so that he could reach a hand in and turn on the light. As soon as he flicked the switch the unknown pressure went away and the door opened fully. He looked behind the door to see what the hell had been blocking it and was surprised to see an old broom propped up against the wall. Scratching his head he turned back to his reason for being there in the first place. The little dark haired girl was sleeping peacefully in the single cot with her thumb in her mouth and even the bad guy had to pause for a second and think about how adorable she was. He crept over to the cot and was about to pick up the sleeping child when he heard footsteps outside the room. Panicking, he looked around the room for somewhere to hide and to his dismay the only place was a large, empty barrel with the lid miraculously off. The short man struggled to hop into the barrel, but once again because of his height he ended up falling in head first and quickly bent his knees to hide his feet. Fortunately for him during one of the many Fairy Tail guild battles, somebody (Gajeel) had punctured his barrel in several places and one of the holes was near his eyes. He was able to see when a woman came through the storage room door, stopping when she saw the toddler sleeping peacefully in the cot. The short man realized it wasn't one of the girls who had been in the guild earlier. Although she had white hair like one of the barmaids, it was cut shorter and she looked a few years younger, but they had the same pretty blue eyes.

"Still sleeping! Thank goodness," Lisanna let out a sign of relief when she looked at Asuka. Her gaze then went to the barrel and the short man cringed. Can she see me? He thought to himself. I hope not! If she is related to that other woman I don't want to know what kind of magical power she has. Lisanna started to walk towards the barrel and the man let out an inaudible squeak of fear. Instead of looking in and catching him in the act though, she picked up the barrel lid from where it was leaning against a chair and slammed it on the top without looking inside.

"This is dangerous!" she muttered to herself and then transformed her left arm into that of a lime green gorilla. "We shouldn't have open empty barrels in the same place as a sleeping baby!" She hit the barrel with a thud and the man heard a pop as it closed soundly. The panic in his stomach turned into raging fear, I'm trapped! He screamed inside his head but he didn't dare call out to the mage because she would surely transform totally into a gorilla and then he was really done for. A soft yawning sound came from the cot and Lisanna turned to find Asuka sitting up in the blanket and rubbing her eyes sleepily.

Her hand went to her mouth, "Oh! I wasn't thinking! I am so sorry sweetie for waking you up." The little girl just glared at her and looked around to see if there was anything else going on. From her spot on the cot, Asuka could see into the holes in the barrel and she turned her head to the side in confusion, why was somebody hiding in there? That looked like a lot of fun! The man noticed that the little girl had figured out he was there and his fear turned into mortal peril. That's it- I'm finished, he admitted to himself and started praying that it would at least be a quick death.

"Man!" Asuka said and pointed at the barrel and the man inside. Lisanna, of course, misunderstood her completely, "Don't worry sweetie, I closed that barrel up tight, you can't fall into it anymore." Upon hearing that the man was closed in the barrel, Asuka let out a happy giggle.

Lisanna took it as a sign that the little girl was over being woken up and picked her up off of the cot. "Common cutie, let's go outside and see what's happening. Somebody blew up one of the big trees and they were putting out the fires, well, Natsu was eating all the fire when I came in to check on you." Asuka clapped her hands and giggled again when she heard the word "fire", completely forgetting about the silly man in the barrel.

Meanwhile, he was starting to realize his predicament and how the heck was he going to get out of it? At least in her hurry to leave the white haired girl had forgotten to turn the light off and he didn't have to sit in the dark. The blood was really starting to rush to his head and his nose was getting numb from being pushed into the side of the wooden barrel. All of a sudden he got the creepy feeling that he was being watched and a shiver went down his spine. When he peeked through the holes again his gaze automatically went to the broom in the corner by the closed door. Sitting upside down must be making me crazy; he thought to himself, I could have sworn that broom just twitched. But then he saw the broom move a little again and his fear returned, he didn't know what was wrong with this crazy guild, but he wanted to go home!

* * *

As Lisanna made her way outside she pinched the sleeping Cana (to Asuka's delight) on the butt make sure she was still alive.

"Arg! What is your peoples problem?" Cana growled, swatting at Lisanna with the hand not still clutching her keg protectively. Lisanna dodged it easily and joined Asuka in her laughter. "Cranky Auntie Cana, isn't she cute?" She cooed as they escaped out the front door.

"Cute? Gah! Just wait, I'll give ya cute!" Cana managed to lift her head off the table a few inches before giving up. "Maybe… later… stupid… prissy...pervert…" and she started snoring again. Because of this, she didn't hear the man crying from his barrel in the storage room, although it was loud enough to be heard through the door.

"Stupid… idiots!" zzzZZZzzz….


	3. Chapter 3

Not too far away from the run down guild hall, a group of young mages were scattered around the remains of a blown up tree. They all seemed to be wearing expressions in various degrees of shock, anger or sadness, except for one. Natsu was laughing delightedly as he ran up to each chunk of smoldering wood and sucked the fire out of it hungrily.

"He is enjoying this way too much," Gray mumbled as he covered a small blackened log with ice. Natsu had already sucked all the flames off it, but if they didn't put out the embers it might start a forest fire. Juvia heard him from where she was dousing a pile of smoking tree wreckage with her water and started to blush.

"Enjoy… too much…" the water mage repeated under her breath, her blush spreading.

"Did you say something?" Gray asked, looking up at her from another piece of fire wood.

By this time she was tomato red. "N-no, G-Gray-sama, Juvia did not say a-anything," she managed to get out.

"Oh, ok then," he replied and turned to find another chunk to freeze. Juvia closed her eyes and counted to ten slowly. Think of the book, think of the book, think of the book, she repeated in her head.

**Tip Five: Counting to ten is a great way to get rid of dirty thoughts. **

Then she did some meditation breathing and she could feel her blush start to go away. It is working! Juvia smiled to herself and opened her eyes to find Gray's face just a few inches from her own. She screeched in surprise and fell backwards hard while Gray jumped back with a cry of his own. She felt her blush returning and could only stare at him in bewilderment.

Gray peered down at her sitting on the ground, "What where you doing with your eyes closed for so long? I though you where having a seizure!" Still stunned, all Juvia could do was continue to stare up at him, but after a few seconds, the leg she had broken herself on Tenrou Island twitched with a stabbing pain. She flinched and waited for the cramp to subside before trying to get up, but the pain must have shown in her face because before she knew it Gray was crouched down beside her.

"Are you ok? Did you hurt your leg again when you fell? Tell me what's wrong!" he was asking questions so fast and was so close to her again, it was making Juvia's head spin. Being reminded about her broken leg on the island also made her think about him carrying her in their desperate run to get away from Acnologia's attacks. Juvia knew that if she didn't settle down soon she was going to get a massive nosebleed and wreck all her hard work over the last few weeks.

She put a big smile on her face, "Do not worry Gray-sama, Juvia's leg will be fine in a minute." He raised his eyebrow at her, but did not get up. Juvia's mind started to wander into her fantasy place, being lifted up into Gray-sama's arms… carried back to the guild valiantly with her arms around his neck, caressing his- NO! NO! NO! Think of the book! Think of the book! Think of the book!

**Tip Eleven: Fantasies are for private time ONLY!**

She tried to jump up quickly but her leg was still throbbing a little bit and she almost fell again, only Gray's strong arm across her shoulders kept her from going down.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked her again, unconvinced because of her strange behavior. "I can carry you back to the guild hall-"

"NO!" Juvia shouted in a panic. Juvia must not give in, she told herself, think of the book, think of the book, think of the book! "Juvia will be fine, Juvia just needs to stand here for a moment." She smiled again, the book said smiles where good (as long as they weren't too large). Gray blew out a breath he had been holding for some reason.

"Alright, at least me help you over to that rock so you can sit down until your leg feels better…" Not trusting her voice again, Juvia just nodded her head gratefully and they limped over to a large rock that was amid the tree wreckage at the edge of the forest. Gray helped lower her down and the pain in her leg started to go away again.

"Thank you, Gray-sama," Juvia said gratefully with her head down. She missed the light blush that spread in his cheeks and he cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked for the third time. Juvia nodded again and continued to look down at the ground.

"Juvia! Gray!" They both looked up to see Lisanna coming towards them, and she was carrying little Asuka. "Hey! How is the clean up going? Did they figure out why the tree blew up yet?" she asked when she reached the rock.

It was Gray's turn to shake his head, "I don't think so, but we have been putting out the little fires so I haven't talked to the others in awhile. Laxus, Bixlow and Freed were looking for evidence that somebody did it on purpose, but I'm not sure if they found anything or not. Juvia… fell, and her leg started to hurt so we are taking a break."

"Oh no," Lisanna's voice filled with concern for her one-time partner. "Do you want me to go track down Wendy so she can take a look at it? I didn't see her with the others but I can try and find her." Juvia opened her mouth to say that wasn't necessary but Gray interrupted her.

"That's a good idea! Wendy will be able to fix it up again, I'll go find her," and he took off quickly towards the others. Juvia put a hand to her face in frustration. No! No! No! This couldn't be happening; Juvia isn't anywhere near ready yet!

"Juvia? What's wrong?" Lisanna asked, again with concern. Asuka was starting to get bored being in one place this long, but the sight of her Mother's friend looking miserable on the rock made her interest rise back up. Juvia looked up at her close guild-mate with tears starting in her eyes.

"Juvia is trying to change and follow the book, but Gray-sama makes it so HARD."

"Book..?" Lisanna asked confused, but before she could ask further she heard somebody running towards them. Instead of Gray like she was expecting, it was Bixlow uncharacteristically running towards them, his "babies" flying ahead and zooming around the girls. Asuka clapped her hands and laughed as they flew in front of her in swirling patterns, chitterling something that wasn't even words. She tried to reach out and catch one, but it flew away too fast and laughed at her attempt.

"Lisanna!" The big mage called when he got closer. "You've got to come with me right now! One piece of that damn flamin' tree landed in the garden, right on the pumpkin that Mira and Kinana where saving for Halloween. Your sister is about to flip 'er shit and go into full demon mode on everyone! Elfman hasn't come back from his job yet, you're the only one who can calm her down now." As he gasped for breath, he stuck his oversized tongue out at the toddler, who was still laughing at his dolls as they flew around her. Asuka smiled even wider, she loved it when he did that!

"Uh oh," Lisanna answered him, "We had better hurry then. If Mira-nee is that mad, I shouldn't take Asuka over there. Juvia, can you watch her for a minute? I'll be right back!" Juvia looked at her friend like she had suddenly grown three heads.

"Juvia? Look after a baby?" But Lisanna had already plopped Asuka down on Juvia's good leg and was running with Bixlow back to the tragic garden accident. Juvia looked down in horror at the small child on her knee; she had no experience with children and had no idea what to do next. Asuka looked up at Juvia expectantly and they sat like that for a full minute, neither of them blinking or making a move. Finally Juvia broke the silence and moved her face a little bit closer to the toddler's.

"Do you want to hear Juvia's secret?" she asked the little girl quietly. Asuka's eyes got wider, secret? She liked secrets! She nodded her head at the blue haired water mage eagerly. Juvia reached behind her and pulled something out of her skirt. It was a small book titled: **25 Tips On How To Control Your Obsessive Behavior and Finally Win Your Man!** She gave it to the little girl to hold.

"Juvia has been working really hard to follow the book so that maybe one day Gray-sama will return Juvia's feelings. But the book says that before that will happen Juvia has to change how she acts around Gray-sama. Juvia tries so hard but he makes it very difficult!" The woman's eyes started to fill up with tears again and Asuka did the only thing that she thought would make her stop crying. The little girl reached over and patted Juvia's shoulder lightly and then gave her a bright smile. But instead of making her stop, Juvia's eyes got even tearier and then she crushed Asuka to her chest in a tight hug.

"Oh, Asuka-chan! You make Juvia feel so much better!" Before Asuka could protest or try and escape from the crazy water witch there was the sound, once again, of somebody approaching their rock. They looked up to see Gray approaching them and Juvia let out a yelp of surprise. "Must hide the book!" She took it from Asuka's hands and frantically suck it back in her underpants were it belonged (pockets were not to be trusted, things fell out of them). Gray stopped when he saw them both huddled together on the rock and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Where did Lisanna go? Why do you have Asuka?" The ice mage had lost his shirt and pants somewhere in his search and Juvia resisted the urge to start blushing again.

"Gray-sama… your clothes," she reminded him quietly. He looked down at his naked self and jumped as if realizing it for the first time (which he was).

"What? When did that happen? Anyway, I found Wendy; she is healing Romeo because he burned himself trying to absorb normal fire like Natsu. I'll help you down to where she is." Juvia nodded and stood up, balancing Asuka on the hip of her good leg.

"Here, I can take her," Gray reached for the toddler but Juvia waved him away.

"Juvia will carry her new friend. If Gray-sama can help Juvia on her other side…?" she limped away from the rock and Gray put his arm around her back again. Juvia was concentrating so hard on trying not to fall or drop Asuka that she didn't notice Gray's hand drift a little bit further down her back than it needed to be. Asuka noticed however, it was almost within the precious book distance! She looked up at the black haired mage and narrowed her eyes; they might have to have a talk later.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry that this chapter has taken longer than I originally anticipated to get out. It is more filler than what I wanted to but it will be setting up the next few chapters up nicely. Thank you so much for your nice reviews! I really appreciate them and you for sticking with me! I promise the next chapter will not take as long for me to post up! Enjoy!**

* * *

While the Fairy Tail mages were running around their guild's front yard doing damage control, the two remaining men from Twilight Ogre where waiting not so patiently for their partner to come back. They were close, but not too close, to the guildhall, sitting in the bushes that came right before the trees that lined the clearing where the old windmill sat.

"Where is he," the fat leader grumbled, watching the path that lead from the back of the guild like a hawk for any sign of the short man's return. The tall man was standing beside him, twitching with nervousness at the thought of being caught.

"Maybe they saw him… What are we going to do? I don't know if blowing up a tree was the best idea to distract them, they looked seriously pissed off," the tall man cringed at the memory of watching the outraged mages finding the wreckage from the explosion. They hadn't anticipated more than the handful of members in the guild hall at the time to show up so soon. Just their luck that not one, but two teams had already been on their way back and close when they heard the bang. Mayhem had followed; some of them started attacking each other in the confusion, others ran around trying to find something other than their comrades to attack and a few even attacked some of the larger pieces of tree like they were going to transform into enemies at any moment. The only sane one had been the pretty blonde girl in a short skirt holding what looked like a tiny shaking snowman. After dodging a couple of random attacks from her fellow guild member's bad aim, she ripped off the whip attached to her belt and cracked it into the air with a loud snap.

"Listen, all you idiots!" She had yelled. "We need to start putting out these fires before they spread down into the town! Innocent people will get hurt!" That had seemed to wake everyone up and they started scrambling around putting out fires (or eating the fire like one pink haired guy) and more Fairy Tail mages had eventually started trickling in from the town to help with clean up. Seeing that their plan of getting everyone out of the guild had worked (well except for the drunk girl), the two men moved closer to the building and started waiting. Now they were sure almost every Fairy Tail member was back at their headquarters, their time to get the kid without anyone seeing was running out.

"If that idiot got caught, he better hope they kill him because if they don't I will," the leader growled to the tall man.

"Maybe we should get closer and see what is going on?" The tall man suggested nervously. He waited for the fat man to yell at him again, but before he could, they heard somebody coming. Instead of their missing partner, two men broke through the bush and started walking towards their hiding spot.

"I don't think the debris from the explosion reached this far," a green haired man was telling his companion, who was big and blonde. "But it's that we do not know who or what caused the explosion to begin with that worries me. Do you think this could be an attack on Fairy Tail like the battle with Phantom Lord?"

The big man crossed his arms as he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he answered in a deep voice. "I do know that trees do not blow up by themselves, but if it was an attack on the guild, then why didn't they attack?"

"That is the question," the other man agreed. "It also happened while the Master was away; maybe they thought we would be more vulnerable to attack and our sudden arrival was unexpected. Mirajane did say that only she, Erza and Cana were in the guild hall at the time. Some unsuspecting person could have believed it was defenseless." At that the blonde man laughed, "Between Mira and Erza they could have handled anything short of an army. Any decent rival guild would have known that, this had to be something other than an attack." They stopped walking just in front of the bushed where the Twilight Ogre men were hiding. The tall man tried not to breathe too loud, but his unease was rising by the second. There was more to this guild than they thought, not only are their members strong but these ones are _smart_ too. They needed to get out of here and find out what happened to the short man before they really did figure out what was going on.

"Well," the big man said after a few minutes of looking around for anything suspicious. "I guess you can go help Evergreen make sure there aren't any big pieces of wood stuck in the trees, the last thing we need is for one of the knuckle heads to get clobbered by a falling log. I will go see if Bixlow found Lisanna to calm down Mirajane," the man grimaced like it was really the last thing he wanted to do. "That woman can be a real demon when she gets upset."

"As you wish," the other man responded quietly. "We will find out who threatened Fairy Tail and then we will make them regret they had." Something in his voice made the tall man shiver and wish he could melt into the ground. The blonde man just grunted and rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, as long as they didn't attack and no one got hurt, maybe it was just a prank gone wrong. All I promised the old man when he left is that the guild would be standing when they got back, that's it. Let the knuckle heads deal with it the way they want to, I don't really care." The green haired man nodded and they turned around to go back to where they came from. Just then there was a loud crack and the tall man whipped his head over to see the fat man frozen in place beside him.

"What was that!" The smaller man had pulled the sword out of his belt and was pointing it right at their bush. The tall man swallowed his heart rate rising again, just waiting for him to come storming at them. The big blonde man just rolled his eyes again and turned back to the trees and started walking.

"Come on Freed, it was probably just a squirrel, or a deer. There is nothing here, let's go back."

"As you wish," the green haired mage replied again. He scanned the bushes one more time before following his partner.

The two men hiding in the bushes said nothing for a long minute and then suddenly the fat man whacked the tall man across the back of the head.

"What do you think you're doing making noise with them right here?" he whispered angrily in case the two mages were still close by.

"ME?" The tall man replied, trying to whisper as well but it came out being more like a high pitched squeal. "I didn't move a muscle, I swear!" The fat man grunted and turned back to where they had disappeared in the trees.

"Do you know who that was?" The fat man whispered again fiercely. "That was Laxus Dreyar, Guildmaster Makarov's grandson. He is one of the most powerful mages in Fairy Tail now, and that man with him is a part of the Raijinshuu, his personal guard, Freed Justine. If either one of them catches us, we're toast, both of them together and would never find anything to bury." The tall man tried swallowing the hard lump that had formed in his throat, this was way more dangerous then they had planned it to be. Just then the fat man stood up and started climbing out of the bush.

"What are you doing?" The tall man asked in shock, he tried standing as well but ended up getting caught in the branches.

"Moving closer, we have to find out what happened and it is too late to turn back now, if the boss knows we got this far and didn't get the girl he will punish us for sure." As the tall man continued to try and untangle himself from the bush the fat man started following the two mages. Although it was the last thing he wanted to do, the tall man knew he would have to go too, he only hoped it wouldn't actually _be_ the last thing he would ever do.

* * *

By that time most of Fairy Tail had found their way to the garden beside the guildhall. Mirajane was still mourning the loss of her beloved pumpkin, but Lisanna was comforting her along with her brother Elfman who had finally gotten back from his job. By then most of the flaming logs had been put out and they were trying to figure out what to do next. Fairy Tail was used to cleaning up after wild barfights and rebuilding things inside the guild, but what to do about a mysterious exploding tree had them stumped.

"I supposed we should pull all of the bigger pieces around back and chop them up for firewood," said Erza to the group of mages standing in the garden.

"That means we will have to probably go and convince Gajeel to come and chop them up since he is only one who could cut through pieces of log that thick. Laki can probably give him a hand too, where is she?" Bixlow added while leaning on one of the storage sheds.

"She and Kinana went to find Evergreen and see how she is doing looking up in the trees for pieces of wood stuck up there," Jet answered him. Droy, who was standing beside him, was trying to shove a whole apple pie in his mouth and was being quite successful.

"Ok, well somebody should probably go out to find her and tell her we need her back here right now and someone else do the same for Gajeel," Erza studied the group as if trying to bully them into volunteering.

"Um, we will go find Laki," Jet replied quickly and pulled Droy away from his pie. "Common." The fat man grumbled but followed his partner off to the trees.

"So who wants to go find Gajeel? Levy, why don't you-"

"NO!" The small blue haired girl's voice ripped though the air. Erza wiped a trickle of blood from her busted ear drum and looked around again. "Anyone else?"

"I will go!" Wendy put up her hand; she had just finished healing Juvia's leg and knew that she wouldn't be too helpful doing anything else.

"Alright then, you and Carle will go find him and tell him to come here right away. The rest of you have jobs, now get to it!" The red head's voice rang out and everyone scrambled to be where they should. Lucy looked around at everyone leaving, unsure of what she was supposed to do. When Juvia had come back carrying Asuka, Lucy had volunteered to watch the little girl while she got her leg healed. Asuka was now playing in the flower garden, quite oblivious to what the people around her were doing.

"Um," Lucy started looking around for someone to ask and spotted Erza. "What am I supposed to do with her?" She asked her cautiously. The tall girl thought for a second before answering.

"Well, things are going to get very busy around here and it might be dangerous for a child. Mira is supposed to be in charge of her, but we might need her here. Why don't you take Asuka to the park where she can play and be safe while we clean up this mess? Take Natsu with you, right now he isn't a big help to us either." She looked over under one of the trees nearby where the pink haired dragon slayer was groaning and holding his swollen belly. "Too… much… food…" he whimpered quietly.

"He won't be much good to me either…" the blonde girl whispered under her breath, "but I will take him along!" She added louder before Erza could give her the look of death. Lucy picked up Asuka from the flower garden and walked over to the tree.

"Common Natsu," she kicked the dragon slayer's foot lightly. "You've been ordered to come to the park with Asuka and me."

"Luuuucyy," Natsu groaned as he tried to move. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"JUST GET UP AND GET A MOVE ON ALREADY! I TOLD YOU NOT TO EAT ALL THAT FIRE SO FAST…!"as she continued to yell at the boy, she swung her leg back to kick him again. Natsu was quicker than she though and managed to roll out of her foot's way, popping up off the ground in the process.

"Ok then! The park? Let's go!" He took off towards the town, leaving Lucy to shriek in surprise before rushing after him. Asuka was being shaken around as Lucy had to run to catch up with her team mate, but she didn't care. Lucy understood the importance of a well placed kick, and Asuka liked that about her, and the fact that when she yelled, people did what she told them. She was excited when she heard they where going to the park, it was her second most favorite place to visit besides the guild. Asuka smiled as Lucy continued to run down the hill, this was going to be fun!

* * *

The two men from Twilight Ogre where still following Laxus and Freed when something else caught their eye unexpectedly, it was the blonde girl from before carrying the kid they were supposed to be kidnapping! The fat man stopped in surprise and the tall man nearly bumped into him.

"There she is!" he whispered furiously. "That fool failed! Then where is he? No matter, we will follow them and find a way to take her from those people," the fat man asked quickly and didn't give the tall man a chance to reply. He didn't know if it was a good idea going after the blonde girl, from what he saw she was a force to be reckoned with when she was mad, but the fat man had already changed directions to follow her and the kid. The tall man still had a bad feeling about this, but once again, there was nothing he could do but follow blindly after the little girl and her babysitters.

* * *

**Sorry if there are any mistakes I didn't catch! I wanted to get this out quickly. I hope it was worth the wait!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello again! The next chapter, up quicker than last time like I promised! This one is all about NaLu and the crazy park moms. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I like writing it :)**

* * *

When the three of them got to the park, Lucy was happy to see that it wasn't crowded at all, only a handful of kids were playing on the equipment. She started to put Asuka down so she could play and felt someone run past her.

"SLIDE!" she heard Natsu yell he ran up the stairs to the biggest slide in the park, nearly toppling over a small child on the way up. He was ahead me; she thought to herself, how did he get behind me? She set Asuka on her feet and crouched down to the toddler's eye level.

"Alright sweetie, we are going to play here for an hour, ok? Be careful and don't play close to Natsu." The little girl nodded and then ran off in the direction of the sandbox. Lucy stood up, sighed and then looked around for the pink haired menace. He was standing at the top of the jungle gym laughing at the couple of older kids at the bottom trying to climb up. "I'm the king of the castle, YAA!"

"Oh, God," Lucy muttered and hoped that no one remembered that they had came here together. Thanks Erza, she though to herself as he made her way over to one of the benches where some of the mothers sat while watching their own children. She felt their eyes on her as she sat down on the edge of the furthest seat so she could make a quick escape if needed. Their eyes were drilling holes into her and she had the creepiest sensation that she was being critically judged.

"They never go back to the way they were before do they?" One of the mothers asked. Lucy turned to her in surprise, "Sorry? I don't know what you mean…"

"Oh, you know what I mean. It's like they have completely changed, they don't feel the same way that they used to before you had the baby." The woman had brown hair that was pulled into a messy ponytail, her clothes were all rumpled and she had some baby food stains around the sleeves of her shirt. The worst thing though, at least to Lucy, was that she looked like she hadn't slept in a year, dark circles under her eyes and she was leaning back on the bench like she was about to fall asleep. Lucy was still trying to comprehend what she was saying when another mother chimed in.

"It's all about how you take care of them, I find. You just have to show them whose boss and not let them get out of hand in the first place." This mother had red hair and was wearing an immaculate blue matching track suit while bouncing a little boy on her hip.

"Well, not all of us are perfect," muttered the first mother under her breath sulkily. Lucy was still growing confused.

"Excuse me, but what are you-"

"Did you just say something to me?" The red headed mom turned on the brown.

"I wasn't the one that butted into a conversation, now was I?" The first mother retorted back louder.

"Now, now," A third mom came walking up to the benches holding the hand of a little girl. This one was a blonde and she looked reasonably rested and dressed to Lucy's relief.

"We don't want to scare away the newbie. Is this your first time at the park?" She asked Lucy as she let her little girl's hand go so she could go play.

"Yes, but I think you guys are getting the wrong idea-"

"I didn't do anything!" The brown haired mother replied defensively. "I just wanted to start a conversation with a grown up, is that too much to ask? It's obviously she's still having problems, just look at her!" Lucy was truly confused by now and looked down at herself. She didn't look any different than normal and she looked considerably better than some of the women here. Just then she heard her name from over by the sandbox.

"Lucy!" Natsu yelled at her. "You should come over here and play with us, this is fun." Natsu was sitting in the sand with Asuka and a few other children, helping them dig holes for whatever game they were playing.

"Awe, that is so cute!" The red haired mother replied before Lucy could answer back. "My husband never wants to come to the park, you're so lucky!" Lucy stared at the woman in shock. They thought that Natsu was her husband? Now it made sense!

"No, no, no!" She replied quickly. "You're making a mistake-"

"You're doing it again," The brown haired mother stood and turned accusingly to the red head. "I was talking to her first!"

The red head rolled her eyes and continued to bounce her baby. "We know all about your problems, you never shut up about them. Can't we talk about something different for once?"

The brown haired woman's eyes started to fill up with tears. "Well I'm sorry that my problems don't mean anything to you. I just wanted to get the new girl's opinion, that's all." The blonde woman rushed over and started patting her back soothingly.

"It's ok, we have all been there. Things will get better…"

Lucy thought it was time to come clean with these people before she got dragged in deeper, "Listen!" All three women turned towards her in shock at her loud voice.

"There has been a misunderstanding; Natsu and I are not having relationship problems! I mean there is no relationship to have problems with, we aren't together!" She got out in a rush. The three mothers continued to stare at her with wide eyes, finally the blonde spoke.

"Sweetie, she wasn't talking about your boyfriend," she said slowly.

"Then what in the hell were you guys talking about?" Lucy asked, now even more confused. The three women didn't answer; they just all looked down at Lucy's ample chest area. Sudden realization hit her like a freight train, when you have a baby certain parts of your body change… OH GOD NO! Lucy slapped a hand to her chest and even though she was fully clothes she suddenly felt completely naked.

"I mean, yours are so big," The brown haired woman continued, the fight momentarily forgotten. "You must have it real bad, the itching and the chafing…" All three women jumped when Lucy let out a shriek and turned even redder in the face. Unfortunately, her scream had attracted her team mate and he came rushing over with Asuka toddling behind him.

"Lucy! What's wrong, did something happen?" All she could do was turn to him, her face still in a mask of shock. Natsu saw her holding her chest tightly for no obvious reason and immediately though she had been injured.

"Where have you been hit? Let me see," he reached out his hands to check for wounds and was surprised when she shrieked again and jumped back. "Don't touch me!"

"I don't understand," Natsu replied, confused. "If you're hurt, let me make it better." He tried reaching again and Lucy finally turned and made her escape, still red in the face. Natsu ran after her calling her name out and they chased each other around the playground. Asuka stood there watching intently, she had apparently been forgotten about for the moment. Oh, well, who needs grown up drama when you have swings, and the little girl started to toddle over to them happily.

The three moms were still watching this scene in astonishment.

"That chick is so in denial," the red head commented

"Yeah."

"Totally."

* * *

It was about that time that the Twilight Ogre men reached the park and watched as Natsu tried to chase Lucy down to find out what was wrong. The fat man noticed that Asuka had been left alone and was currently trying to climb onto one of the lower lying swings by herself.

"This should be easy," he told the tall man. "They are preoccupied; all we have to do is walk up and grab her. No one will ever notice anything."

"What about the women on the benches?" he asked nervously.

"Don't worry about them. People always mind their own business, nobody will care." The tall man doubted that was the way it worked but before he could argue the fat man pushed him out of the trees. "So, go get her!"

"Why me?" The tall man asked, his voice full of fear now.

"Because I told you so, don't argue, just do it!" The fat man yelled. The tall man stood up and started creeping over to the swing set, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. He was almost there and home free when he felt something hit his back, like a rock.

"Hey you!" He turned to find a disheveled brown haired woman standing behind him holding another rock. "What do you think you are doing?" She asked in an emotionally high pitched voice.

"N-n-nothing," he managed to get out, noticing the crazed look in her eye. She threw the second rock at him hard and it hit him in the shoulder, he cried out in surprise.

"I'll ask you again, what do you think you are doing?" She took a menacing step closer to the tall man and he started walking backwards, in the direction of the swing set.

"She told you to stop!" Came another voice off to his one side and when he looked it was a red head and she was holding a small portable lighting lacrima rod.

"Don't make me use it, pedophile!" She also had an angry glint in her eye and it reminded the tall man of the red head at the Fairy Tail guild, they could have been sisters.

He turned in the opposite direction, the only open one left and before he took two steps, something hard hit him on his ass.

This time it was a blonde and she was holding a branch that was now aimed at his head.

"Get out" was all she said, in a quiet and eerie voice. The tall man tried to get up to run away and the red head yelled, "Too late!" She came at him with the lacrima rod and got him in a bare spot of skin on one arm. He let out a yelp and scrambled to make it to the trees without getting zapped again. A few whacks with the branch and some rocks bouncing off his head and he eventually made it out of the park semi-alive, luckily he wasn't zapped again. He leaned against a tree and tried to catch his breath… Man, those park moms are bat shit crazy!

* * *

Of course the commotion caused by the three park moms finally got Lucy and Natsu's attention and broke them out of their cat and mouse game. They ran up to the swing set and Lucy picked up Asuka, who had just finally made it onto the swing and had been oblivious as to what was going on. She stuck out her bottom lip sulkily, so close! She had almost got to swing by herself.

"What happened?" Lucy was asking the park moms.

"Oh, a pedophile came into the park and started stalking towards your little girl. It happens every once and awhile," the blonde mother answered Lucy with a smile.

"Yes. But don't worry, we eliminated him," the red headed mom gave Lucy and Natsu a chilling smile and lifted up her lacrima rod, sparking it once to make her point.

Both Natsu and Lucy stared at the women like they had lost their minds; there seriously wasn't anything scarier than a pissed off park mom.

"T-t-thank-you," was all Lucy could get out, hugging Asuka closer. She turned to Natsu and said in a much quieter voice. "I think we need to leave, NOW!" Natsu nodded and they turned to walk away but the brown haired mom stopped them.

"Wait!" When they turned back to her, she continued. "I'm sorry for my emotional outburst earlier, you know the hormones, they get to you." Before Lucy could try and correct her again she continued quickly. "And I think you guys are going to make great parents, so I really hope you figure that paternity thing out." It was Natsu's turn to screech.

"PARENTS? PATERNITY? WHAT?"

"NEVERMIND" Lucy responded, her voice equally as loud and shrill, "LET'S GO." But as she turned to go she felt Asuka tapping her on the shoulder.

"What is it sweetie? Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Asuka shook her head no. She was annoyed that she had almost made it onto the swing without help and then it was ruined. She was also annoyed that they were leaving the park a whole half hour early for no good reason (to her anyway). So she did the one thing she had been dying to do since Lucy had first picked her up back at the guild. She grabbed the front of Lucy's tube top, right in the middle and yanked down…

* * *

When Natsu and Lucy finally left the park about five minutes later, they where too embarrassed to notice the one man who was leaning against a tree, barely conscious and covered in bruises and the other who was passed out from the massive nosebleed he had suffered from witnessing Lucy's flash. It was a good thing too, because if Lucy had found out they were the cause of all her embarrassment that day, the park moms would have just been a warm up to the pain that would have come after.

* * *

**There you go! Who is going to be up for taking care of Asuka after that? Will they figure out that the attack/attempt are related? You will have to keep following to find out! I want to thank everyone for their encouragement with my story, for all the reviews and compliments on FF and MF, thankies :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everyone! I am sorry for my long absence but I have two new chapters for you guys today! I hope you enjoy and happy Stingaversary to Luna and MF Sting!**

* * *

Kinana and Laki had been walking around in the trees looking for Evergreen for what seemed like hours. How hard was it to find one flying person? Harder than they thought apparently because they couldn't find any sign of her.

"You would think that we would at least be able to hear her if she is poking around in the treetops," Laki grumbled sourly.

"Maybe she finished already and headed back to the guild," Kinana suggested as she continued to scan the sky.

"Maybe… If that is the case then we are on a wild goose chase and should start back too," Laki answered her with a sigh and turned back around to go where they came from.

"Ok, sounds good to me." Kinana followed the purple haired woman, "Who do you think tried attacking the guild?" She asked her after a few minutes of walking.

"Oh I don't know, it could have been anyone. Now that the Tenrou group has come home it could be someone from Grimoire Heart wanting to get revenge…" the older girl answered while trying to pick her way through the thick trees.

"It's possible I guess, but if they wanted to get revenge it would make more sense to destroy the guildhall at lunchtime or something. Blowing up a tree is so… small."

"It worked to throw us off guard though… maybe that was their intent instead of openly attacking. Who knows, maybe they have found some answers already and we will find out when we get there." They continued to walk back slowly when all of a sudden Kinana felt a shooting pain in her head that caused her to stumble and almost fall. Laki caught her arm and managed to keep her upright, and Kinana could see that she was saying something, probably asking her what was wrong, but Kinana could only hear a rushing sound in her ears and feel the pain.

_Kinana… Kinana… _

The voice in her head seemed to cut through the pain and actually soothed it a little bit. Kinana felt her eyes start to cloud like she was going to pass out but the voice didn't stop.

_Kinana… Kinana… MOVE!_

With the last word Kinana's head cleared suddenly, but some unknown force pushed her on the shoulders hard and sent her flying into something soft and warm. Having her hearing return as well she heard a loud crash, like something heavy hitting the ground. Kinana realized that she was being held up by whoever it was she had crashed into and when she was finally able to look up she saw that it was Droy, she had been pushed into his large stomach. She looked around in alarm, worried about Laki and wondering what had made that sound. Kinana looked over to where they had been standing moments before and saw a large chunk of the destroyed tree that had fallen from somewhere so hard it had burrowed itself in the soft dirt. Laki had also escaped being crushed by the tree and was standing next Jet, who still had his arm around her shoulders because she seemed to be in as much shock as Kinana was.

"That was… close," Jet managed to say, he was staring at the stump with a queasy look on his face.

"Y-yes… it was…" Laki answered, her voice was shaking slightly. "T-that could have been v-very bad…"

"Thank God you guys saw it and managed to get us out of the way," Kinana added, regaining her voice. "We would be pancakes right now if you hadn't gotten us out of the way. Thank you so much…"

Jet blinked and then looked up at her, "But I didn't push you out of the way. I saw the tree falling and used my High Speed to get to you guys in time, but you where already jumping out of the way. I managed to catch Laki, but you flew right into Droy before I could try and grab you."

"But, I didn't jump…" Laki responded quietly, her voice was back to normal now.

"Neither did I and I felt somebody push me out of the way, I know I didn't imagine it," Kinana remembered the voice telling her to watch out and then the pressure on her shoulders. The girls looked at each other, but neither had an answer for what had happened.

"We should go back to the guild," Droy finally broke the silence and Kinana realized it was the first time he had spoken.

"Good idea," Jet replied quickly and the guys began to lead the girls back through the trees. Before they got out of eyeshot, Kinana looked back over her shoulder at the log in the mud. She had to suppress a shiver and thought about how she was going to tell Mira about the voice saving her and Laki's lives.

* * *

Natsu and Lucy took their time returning to the guild with Asuka after they left the park. Lucy knew that if they came back too soon that Erza would know that something went down. As they walked back they agreed to keep what had happened at the park to themselves (and by agreed it was Lucy threatening Natsu that if he never told anyone about the park he wouldn't like what would happen next) and that Erza and Mira were better off not knowing. They were still in town and about to go up the hill when they met Wendy and Charle who were searching for Gajeel.

"You don't know where I can find him, do you?" Wendy asked Natsu.

"No, did you try his place? Or the training grounds?"

"Of course we did," Charle answered sourly. "We have looked in all the places where he is most likely to be and he is not there." She was getting annoyed that this simple task was taking so long to accomplish.

"I found him! I found him!" They all turned towards the voice and found it was Romeo running up to them. "He is in the park under one of the trees, sleeping. Lily is there with him."

"Why were _you _looking for him?" Charle asked, her voice still a bit harsh. A little bit of blush came to Romeo's cheeks and he turned away slightly.  
"I didn't have anything better to do and I owe Wendy for healing my hand, so I thought I would help you out." Charle huffed again but Wendy just smiled.

"Thank-you, Romeo! See you guys later!" and she ran off towards the park with Charle following close behind.

"Well, we should get back to the guild and give the kid back," Lucy looked over at Asuka where she was perched on Natsu's shoulders. She didn't trust herself to hold the toddler yet, in case she decided to strangle her after all.

"Yep," Natsu replied simply and turned back the hill, "Common Romeo, you might as well walk with us."

"Ok Natsu-nii." The boy followed them as they made their way back up the hill towards the guild.

* * *

Things were staring to get back to normal at Fairy Tail, as normal as they ever got that was. Cana was prodded awake finally and crawled off her table, Erza was still trying to order everyone around to make sure the tree clean up went smoothly and Mira started making the preparations for the supper rush. She went to the storage room and noticed that someone had left the light on and put the lid on the old broken beer keg. She had been wondering what to do with it and suddenly thought of a good idea.

"Elfman!" She called out into the main area of the guildhall, "Can you come here, please?" The big man had to squeeze himself though the small storage room door.

"What is it, Nii-san?" he asked her curiously.

"Can you take this old beer keg out back? It is broken beyond repair, but Gajeel can cut it up for firewood while he is doing the pieces of tree."

"A man would never turn down such an easy request! Of course I can!" He hefted the "empty" barrel over one shoulder and managed to squeeze back through the door frame.

"Are you sure this barrel is empty?" He asked his sister, "It is heavier than it should be."

"What's wrong Elfman? An empty barrel is too much for you to handle?" He heard Bixlow call out from one of the nearer tables.

Elfman blanched at his comment, "What! Why I'll show you what a man can handle." He lifted the barrel with one hand and was about to throw it at the laughing man but Mira put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Just ignore him and take the barrel outside please," she told him firmly. She shot a stern look at Bixlow who immediately stopped laughing, he could still remember her almost demon moment from earlier that day and did not want it to happen again. Elfman went out the back door and dropped the barrel with a thump next to the woodpile and then went back into the guild. T

The man hiding in the barrel, who had been amazingly silent up until then, let out a loud sigh of relief. From when Mira had first walked into the storage room to almost getting thrown at Bixlow the man was amazed that the Fairy Tail members could be so oblivious to his presence. He was lucky they had paid more attention to the man carrying the barrel than the barrel itself. Now that he was outside it was possible that he could escape this nightmare without getting caught and put it all behind him (he refused to believe what he saw the broom do, it was just a reaction from having all the blood rush to his head, that was all). The short man tried kicking the top of the barrel with his feet but it was no use, it still wasn't going to budge. He only saw one way out of this and it was going to potentially be painful. He started rocking himself back and forth and pretty soon the barrel was swaying as well until finally it tipped over on its side. Just as the short man hoped, it started to roll down the hill, but he didn't anticipate the high speed it would reach on its way. He was already feeling sick from being upside down for an hour but the spinning was making him feel worse and it kept going on and on for ever. Finally, the barrel hit a tree with a crunch and shattered completely. The short man lay on the ground for a few minutes trying to get his brain working again, his last thoughts before he passed out was that that he wondered where his partners were and if they were still waiting for him.

* * *

Natsu, Lucy and Romeo arrived at the guildhall when it was starting get rowdy again right before supper.

"Here you go Mira," Natsu handed off Asuka into the white haired woman's arms.

"Where there any problems?" Mira asked him as she cuddled the little girl close. Lucy started to blush and Natsu's eyes started to glaze over in thought but they both replied at the same time. "Nothing!" Mira smiled and looked around the busy guild.

"I am still trying to get things ready for supper and Kinana isn't back yet, do you guys think you could watch her for a few more-, hey!" When she looked back up at Natsu and Lucy they had escaped and where no where to be seen. Mira scanned the rest of the tables looking for someone she could trust with the little girl for the next while. Cana was having a rowdy discussion with the men and still swaying in her seat, so she was out. Erza was yelling at some innocent victim about their role in the great tree disaster clean up, so she was out too. Juvia was sitting at a table with a bag of ice against her healing leg, trying not to make gooey eyes at Gray and failing, so she was out too. Mira sighed to herself, if only she hadn't asked Lisanna to run out and get something last minute at the market, she would have been the perfect babysitter. She finally spotted Levy sitting by herself at one of the back tables; the blue haired girl was reading a book and seemed oblivious to the world around her. Perfect! Mira though to herself and made her way to the table.

"Levy," Mira said in her sweetest voice when she got close enough for her to hear. "Can you watch Asuka a little while for me? Thanks!" She plopped the little girl down on the table and scurried away before Levy could protest. The bluenette looked up from her book at the little girl in front of her with a scowl.

"Perfect," she muttered to herself. "This day keeps getting better and better." Asuka peered back at Levy and wondered why she looked so grumpy, and then she remembered that she was one of the teddy-cat's friends. She clapped her hands together and giggled, hopefully this girl would take her to see him so that they could play some more. Levy seemed to be reading Asuka's thoughts because she came to the same conclusion, if I can find Lily and get him to play with her than this should be a cinch. She remembered that they had wanted Gajeel to cut up the firewood out back and where Gajeel was you could almost guarantee Lily would be too. Levy smiled at the little girl and closed her book.

"Should be go find the black cat?" she asked her, Asuka nodded her head in response, it was exactly what she wanted.


	7. Chapter 7

**Here is the long away GaLe chapter! Now, I will warn you, I may need to enter witness protection after the GaLe fangirls read the ending, but I promise that everything will work out just fine! *trollface* Enjoy!**

* * *

Gajeel was surprised at the amount of tree there was stacked behind the guild when he finally arrived. When Wendy had woken him up from his nap in the park and explained to him what happened he was immediately reminded of the Phantom Guild war, especially the part he had played in it but blowing up a tree was a far cry from what he had done to the old guildhall and to the Fairy Tail members, especially Team Shadow Gear and Lucy. Thinking of Shadow Gear made him think of Levy and for the first time he noticed that he was sleeping under the same tree he had nailed them to now nearly eight years before. He shook his head to clear those thoughts again, there was no use thinking about it now, all he could do was atone for his sins and aid the guild that had taken him in when they had every reason not to.

"I do not see the point in this," Lily commented from his side, he was also surveying the mess in front of them.

"It's firewood, there really isn't a point," Gajeel responded with a raised eyebrow.

The small black cat sighed, "That isn't what I was talking about. Why blow up a tree? It makes no sense."

"Stop thinking like a general, cat, it was probably a prank or one of the others did and are too afraid of Erza's wrath to admit it to anyone. Either way, that isn't our problem right now," Gajeel walked over to one of the bigger pieces of log and transformed his arm into his Iron Dragon Sword and got down to work cutting it up. He was only at it for about five minutes when he felt the uneasy feeling he was being watched. He looked over his shoulder and saw Levy holding the little dark haired kid from this morning who was holding her arms out to Lily excitedly.

"Teddy-cat!" Levy set Asuka down and she immediately pounced on the black cat again, petting him behind the ears. Gajeel knew that Lily secretly enjoyed playing with the little girl but had to keep up his tough guy act and couldn't help but dig him a little.

"Hey cat! You're supposed to be helpin' me, not playing around with the little kids." He was expecting a smart comment back from his partner, but it was Levy that spoke.

"Don't be a jerk Gajeel, Lily is helping me and Mira out by watching Asuka for a little while. Isn't that right, Lily?" She turned and smiled sweetly at the cat.

"I am?" Lily answered in confusion but then Asuka started tugging on his paws, pulling him into the guildhall.

"Cowboys and horsies!" The little girl cried in happiness and Lily let himself be lead away to go play.

"What do you think your doing, ordering my cat around?" Gajeel asked the blue haired girl, forgetting about the half cut up log in front of him for the time being.

"I didn't order him around," she answered calmly, "I asked a friend to do a favor, that's all. He wasn't doing anything here anyway."

"He was too! He was… being my partner," The iron dragon slayer replied lamely. He didn't know why it annoyed him that she had asked Lily for a favor but it did.

"Well, if you are that egotistical that you need somebody to sit around and watch you while you work, then fine," The small girl hopped up on another large log and sat glaring at him with her arms crossed.

"That ain't what I meant, but fine, if you're going to be that way," he started sawing the log up again. As he worked he could feel Levy's glaring eyes shooting at the back of his head. He didn't know what he did to make her so upset, she was normally really cheerful and endlessly positive, except when talking about herself. He finished that log and moved onto another, and then another, the whole time feeling like he was being watched by the angry blue haired mage. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and stopped sawing.

"What?" he asked turning around suddenly. He caught Levy so off guard that she jumped and nearly fell off her log. "What?" she asked, confused and still angry.

"Yes, what? Why are you staring at the back of my head like you want to fry my brains with your laser eyes?" He continued impatiently.

Levy scoffed, "Who says I am glaring at you? Maybe I wasn't even looking at you."

"Whatever," the dark haired man replied turning back to the log. "You could at least help since Lily isn't here to do it." He pointed behind him at the piles of wood on the ground that needed to be stacked in the woodpile.

"I thought I was already helping you by watching," she replied smartly. He just grunted a response and started sawing up the wood again. "Ugh, fine." Levy jumped off her log and started picking up the sticks of firewood and stacking them on the pile. They both did their tasks in silence, inwardly fuming at each other. Gajeel finished his log and looked up to find Levy standing in front of him with her arms crossed.

"Anything else you need me to help you with, partner?" She said the last part with a bit of a sarcastic edge that furthered his bad mood.

He decided that two could play at that game, "No I think I got this. You can go back and sit on your log again, princess." Her face started to turn red again like it had this morning.

"What did you just say?" She asked dangerously.

"You heard me," he replied, unconcerned. "You can go back to glaring at me again if you want."

"I wasn't glaring at you!" Levy shrieked. "Honestly!" She turned on her heel and started to stark away.

"Where are you goin'?" he called after her confused. "I thought you where gonna to 'help' me."

"Not while your being a jerk," She stopped and turned to face him again. "I should go check on Asuka and Lily anyway."

"I'm being the jerk? You're the one who came here in a bad mood for no reason!" Gajeel was getting more confused by the minute, what was going with her today.

Levy exhaled loudly before continued back towards the guildhall's back door, "You really care clueless aren't you," she muttered to herself.

"What was that?" Gajeel asked, although his super dragon slayer ears had heard it just fine.

"I know you heard me!" Levy growled, not being fooled. She was so frustrated at the man that when she saw the log she had been sitting on earlier she swung back a leg to give it good kick to let off some steam. It landed with a solid thud, but Levy also heard an almost inaudible _click_. Gajeel's ears had picked it up as well and it sounded him to him like… no, it couldn't be something like that, it would have blown up with the rest on the tree.

"G-gajeel?" He heard Levy call out to him quietly, "I think I might have a problem here." She sounded like she was about to cry.

Gajeel let his arm transformation go and rushed over to her, "Whatever you do, don't move!"

"I-I'm trying not to," her voice was shaking worse now, "W-what is i-it?" When Gajeel reached her he put his hands on her shoulders to hold her steady, he could feel her shaking getting worse. Just as he had suspected (and feared), the click had come from an undetonated explosive lacrima that Levy had activated when she kicked it. If she took her foot off it, it would blow up and she would not be fast enough to get out of the way before she looked like the tree. He didn't want to tell her this though because she was scared enough, but somehow he thought she had already figured it out. She _is_ a smart girl, he thought to himself, she knew enough not to pull her leg back.

"Ok, this is what we are going to do," he tightened his grip on her shoulders as he spoke into her ear. "I am going to reach down and put my hand under your foot and hold it down. When I have enough pressure on it that it won't go off, I want you to run and keep the rest of the guild away…" Levy was already shaking her head. Not this again, it was not going to be like Tenrou Island where she ran away and he did it all himself, she wasn't going to let that happen again.

"No, I'm not leaving you here. This is my fault; I was the one who was stupid…" She started to cry, big tears running down her cheeks, she was going to get them both killed because she was upset and careless.

"This is not your fault!" The dragon slayer growled in her ear, whoever put this thing in that tree was going to pay for it. "Just let me hold it down instead, I can handle the blast better with my iron scales-" He regretted telling her that when Levy let out a big sob that made her whole body twitch. He had to take one of his hands off her shoulder and put it around her waist tightly before she fell over and they both got blasted. He racked his brain trying to think of what to say that would make her change her mind.

"I-I'm sorry, Gajeel for yelling at you…" Her voice was whisper quiet. "I didn't mean to call you a jerk." He had been upset and scared when she first hit the explosive, but her quiet and calm apology made his chest wrench in physical pain.

"You have nothing to be sorry for! Everything is going to be ok, I promise…" But she continued like he hadn't said anything.

"It was a stupid reason that I was upset with you, I never should have gotten mad," She was still crying silently and Gajeel could feel her body getting weaker trying to hold the position so he tightened his arms around her.

"Don't say that! We are going to be fine, just let me think of something…" They were quickly running out of time before Levy's body would give out and the explosive would go off, but Gajeel couldn't think of anything else to do. He could try and pull her out of the way, and he was fast, but he didn't know if he was fast enough to outrun a bomb.

"Gajeel? Levy?" Came Lily's voice from behind them. Gajeel jerked, he had forgotten all about them! Why were they coming back here?

"No, stay back Lily!" He shouted at them, looking over his shoulder but it was too late. The black cat and the little girl were standing a few feet away from them, Lily was dressed in a ridiculous looking cowboy costume and was taking in the scene with wide eyes, trying to figure it out. The shock of their arrival was too much for Levy to handle; Gajeel felt her body move and watched as her foot fell off the detonator. It felt like time was moving in slow motion as he heard the second _click _and then everything went white… _To Be Continued_

* * *

**Please excuse me while I run from the angry hoards of GaLe fans... *AHHHHH* (I'm kidding). The new chapter will be up hopefully sooner than these were! As always, I hope you had fun reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Greetings readers! I realize that most of you have probably given up on this story and I want to apologize for the amount of time that it has taken me to post the new chapter. A busy summer and writer's block are to blame, but I want to assure you that I have every intention of finishing this story and I am grateful that you have stayed with me so far! This next chapter was the hardest for me to write so far, so it might not be up to the standards of the others, but I promise that the next chapter will be better! Thank-you for reading!**

**As always, I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, they belong to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for their use in my own creative expression *bows* thank-you. **

* * *

The buzzing in her ears was the first thing Levy noticed as she started to regain consciousness andthat she was laying on something uncomfortable with a lot of weight crushing her. Struggling to remember what happened, Levy opened her eyes slowly but she could still only see darkness. She started to panic before she realized that it was because someone was lying on top of her and she was looking at their black shirt. Then it all came rushing back to her, the log, the lacrima bomb, losing her balance when she heard Lily and Asuka… Gajeel! The panic and fear rose again when she realized who it has to be on top of her. Levy didn't even have time to be embarrassed that she was stuck under the big dragon slayer, just that she somehow had to get out from under him and see if he was all right.

"Gajeel!" she cried out, but she couldn't even hear it herself through the ringing and from her mouth being muffled by his shirt. She started kicking her legs as gentle as she could to move out from underneath him before she suffocated for real, finally Levy's head popped out from underneath Gajeel's arm and she could finally see the blue sky and get a breath of fresh air. Once her arms where free she used them as well to pull herself out, she was so focused on getting free she didn't notice that people from the guild had arrived and couldn't hear them call out her name because of her ruptured eardrums. Once her legs were free, she quickly went to try and push Gajeel over onto his back. No wonder he was so heavy, Levy realized that he had covered himself in his scales to protect them from the shrapnel of the tree and even though his scales where thick iron, bits of log where still embedded in parts of his back, arms and legs. Levy noticed that he had managed to shield his head somehow; there was no damage from behind. She struggled with the remainder of her strength to push him over so she could make sure he was still breathing but before she was grabbed from behind, somebody was pulling her arms away from Gajeel's still form. Levy started to panic and began to fight weakly against them, until she turned to find that it was Erza. The bigger girl was easily holding Levy with one arm now and with the other was trying to make gestures with her hand. Why isn't she saying anything? Levy looked up to see that Erza's mouth was moving, but there were no sounds coming out. Still confused, Levy heard herself ask Erza what she was doing, but again, her voice was muffled over the buzzing in her ears. The red head started pointing to her own ears and mouthing the same word over and over again… Levy thought that it was "blood", but why would she saying that? Erza's ears weren't bleeding… Just then it hit her, her foggy brain was finally starting to work properly again, she couldn't hear anything because _her_ ears were bleeding. Panicking, Levy ran her hands over the sides of her head quickly and was shocked when they came away covered in blood. She started to wobble on her knees unsteadily and then felt Erza's arm going around her shoulders to keep her upright. Then Lucy appeared, looking concerned with her brown eyes full of tears, together they helped Levy stand and she needed to lean against them in order to be able to stay upright. They started to lead her into the guildhall but Levy stopped them and turned to look back to where Gajeel was still lying. Relief flooded her system when she saw Wendy was now beside him and assessing his injuries so she could heal him properly. Lucy tightened her arm around Levy in a gentle side hug and then the three of them made their way to the guild in silence.

* * *

When Mirajane heard another crash coming from outside, her first thought was about her squashed pumpkin from the garden and she was just itching to get revenge on this person who thought they could come and destroy property at Fairy Tail. The guildhall had been buzzing with the normal energy that came right before suppertime; almost everyone was already in various stages of drunken tomfoolery so when they all jumped up to make a beeline for the front door it was utter chaos. To their surprise however, when they arrived outside there seemed to be no new damage anywhere in the front yard. They all stood around in confusion until Lisanna spotted Lily in his battle form flying towards them, holding a crying Asuka in his outstretched arms.

"Look up there!" She pointed to him as they started to descend.

Mira ran up to him as soon as she saw the crying toddler and took her into her arms. "Lily, what was that noise? And where did Levy go, she was supposed to be watching Asuka," The white haired woman asked the Exceed while patting the crying girl's back soothingly.

"Gajeel and Levy are at the back of the guildhall and they need your help!" The black cat shrank back down to his small size before following the crowd back behind the guild on foot. There was now a small crater where the log had been and pieces of it littered the ground. Lily looked around frantically for his dragon slayer partner, finally spotting him about ten feet away.

"Levy!" he heard Erza shout as a blue head popped out from underneath Gajeel's still form. She was the first to reach her, "Stop! Don't move him before Wendy has a chance to look at his injuries." But Levy didn't seem to hear her and continued to weakly try and push the big man over on his back until Erza stopped her. There was blood trickling out of her ears and Erza realized that she couldn't hear them because of the damage.

"Levy, your ears are bleeding," She started pointing to her own ears in emphasis. "Blood, blood," she tried saying the words slowly so that Levy would understand.

"Oh my God, Levy!" Lucy knelt down beside Erza, also looking at the small blue haired girl. "Why are her ears bleeding?"

"Her eardrums must have ruptured from the force of the explosion; she can't hear us right now. Other than that she doesn't look injured, help me get her into the guild so that Wendy can heal her as soon as she is done with Gajeel."

Meanwhile, Wendy was looking him over carefully. "Don't push yourself too hard," Charle warned her as she watched her closely to make sure she didn't overuse her power.

"It's alright," The small girl answered, "The iron scales shielded him from everything but a slight concussion and a few big splinters in his back, he is really lucky that it wasn't worse."

"They are both lucky," Laxus answered her while looking on. "We need to check around and make sure there aren't any more explosives around that could go off, everyone, pair up and look around." With only slight grumbling everyone but Mira and those helping the wounded went off to search for more potential hazards.

* * *

After an hour of searching every piece of wood from the tree that had been brought in after the first explosion they gave up and went back into the guild to finally have their belated supper. Gajeel, Levy and Wendy were all taken home by their team mates to rest to rest, Lily promising to look after Gajeel and let them know if he needed more healing.

"I will spend the night with Levy and make sure she is ok," Lucy told Mira as she went back to the guild house to pick her up some food.

"Here," Mira gave her a container full of soup. "Make sure she eats at least some of it or tell her I will come and make her eat it." Mira smiled sweetly but Lucy knew the demon that was lurking behind that face.

"I-I will, thanks Mira!" Lucy turned and nearly ran out the door, the last bits of daylight sneaking through it before she pulled it shut. Mira turned back to the bar and watched as Lisanna fed Asuka her supper. It had been a long and eventful day for the little girl and the thought that she had almost been hurt in the same blast as Gajeel and Levy. Thank God Lily had been there to watch her or Mira didn't know what might have happened.

"Mira," she heard Erza call from a table near the back. She was sitting with Laxus and a fairly sober looking Cana and you knew that it was something serious when Cana started looking sober.

"Coming!" she answered, turning away from Asuka and Lisanna to join them.

* * *

Lisanna really enjoyed looking after Asuka most of the time because she was a happy little girl, but this evening she was in completely different mood.

"Come on Asuka," she urged the little girl. "Just have a bite, it's really yummy, I promise."

"No!" The little girl answered petulantly and crossed her small arms. Lisanna sighed, ready to give up. She could not get her to eat the stew, no matter how hard she tried.

"Ok then, what do you want?" She answered, her voice taking an uncharacteristically annoyed edge.

"I want the teddy-cat…" Asuka replied stubbornly and she stuck out her bottom lip.

"Gajeel isn't feeling good right now and Lily is staying with him, but he will be back tomorrow," Lisanna tried to reason with her, but she knew it was not going to work.  
"No, I want him now," the little girl whined again. Lisanna sighed again, giving up. She picked Asuka up and was surprised when she didn't fight her like she had anticipated. Lisanna looked over to where Mira was sitting with Cana, Erza and Laxus and decided that now was not a good time to bug them judging by the looks on their faces. She then went to plan B and the only other person that she could dump the grumpy toddler off on.

"Elf-niichan," she cooed as she stalked up behind her older brother. "I need you to watch Asuka while I start cleaning up and while Mira is busy." She sat Asuka down on the table before he could object and quickly rushed away.

"Lisanna, wait!" he called after her, looking at the little girl in horror. Asuka stared back at the big man, her sour mood momentarily forgotten with the new person to play with.

"Ever, quick, what do I do?" He asked the woman seated across from him who was also staring at the little girl with apprehension.

"How am I supposed to know what to do with a kid? Because I'm a woman?!" She replied angrily.

"What's the matter Elfman?" Asked Bixlow, who was sitting beside Evergreen at the table. "Are you scared of a little girl?"

"A man is not afraid of anything!" Elfman cried and banged his fist on the table with so much force that Asuka flew off the table.  
"What are you doing you idiot!" Evergreen cried as she jumped up to catch the laughing girl in mid-air. "Really! Do you have any brains in that giant head of yours at all?"

"I didn't mean to," Elfman grumbled quietly.

Bixlow let out a chortle, "Hey Ever, I thought you said you didn't hold kids?" Evergreen grimaced at him as she held on to Asuka awkwardly, who was still clapping her hands and asking Elfman to throw her again. "Shut up you!" She growled.

"You better her put her down before you drop her," Freed commented from where he was sitting beside Elfman, even though he didn't look like he was paying attention to them at all. His eyes were fixated on the table where Laxus and the girls were sitting and he had an obvious look of curiosity and longing on his face. Evergreen placed Asuka back on the table carefully, watching Elfman carefully to make sure he didn't toss her unknowingly again. Bixlow sighed as he raised his hand to summon his babies and then sent them zooming off in Asuka's direction, they danced around her head and whispered little greetings in her ears. "Don't worry Freed, they will tell us what we need to do when they are ready."

Freed tossed his head and turned to the masked mage. "I believe that Laxus will know how to lead Fairy Tail in it's time of need, together we will be able to get revenge on those that think they can insult the guild and get away with it." Everyone else at the table but Asuka rolled their eyes at his words.

"Yeah, yeah, we hear ya," Bixlow answered, trying and failing to keep the dry tone out of his voice but Freed didn't seem to notice. "We don't know yet if it was an attack on the guild or just a prank gone wrong but with what happened to Gajeel and Levy, that makes it more serious than before."

Evergreen raised her eyebrows. "Bixlow, that sounds so sensitive, you're not going soft on us are you?" She snickered at him and he glared at her from under the facemask, his eyes starting to glow green in annoyance. Asuka watched in fascination, the wooden puppets still floating around her head momentarily forgotten, all she could focus on were the pretty green glowing eyes...

"Bixlow, control your eyes, you're starting to take over the girl," Freed reached over the table and put his hand over Asuka's eyes to stop the eye contact.

"Oh shit! Sorry kid!" Bixlow squeezed his eyes shut and the glowing light from under the mask was gone, Freed lowered his hand from Asuka's face once he knew that Bixlow was back in control.

"It's alright, just be more careful. She can see under your mask at that angle and doesn't know to look away." Asuka glared at him for making the pretty green eyes go away but he didn't seem to notice as he turned back to continue watching the other table. The wooden puppets started nuzzling her hair while whispering sorries in her ears and nearly knocked off her little hat.

"Cut that out, come back here." Bixlow summoned them back and they perched on his shoulders like little wooden birds.

"Now what do we do with her?" Elfman asked as the three of them looked at the quiet little girl again. When nobody spoke he inwardly groaned, if Lisanna didn't come back soon this was going to be a long night.

* * *

**I hope that wasn't too bad! I know it was not worth the long wait, but I promise the next chapter will be up quicker and will be better written. I know I might have made Bixlow a little OCC, but I do believe that he would be really good with kids, like he was with Wendy when they were paired together during the recent filler arc. Thanks for reading and more will be up soon. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Well, I promised the next chapter would be up quicker than the last and it is! Although not by much and for that I apologize, I have a job that takes up most of my time right now. This chapter was written after a harrowing day in a Canadian snowstorm where I narrowly escaped being eaten alive by the snow. I was storm stayed for nearly 24 hours with nothing to keep me company and so I decided to write the next chapter to this story. If it feels inconsistent or something doesn't make sense, I apologize again but I didn't have access to my notes or old chapters for reference. **

**Also, I have picked up quite a few followers even with the story not being updated very often! Thank you guys so much, and I do read your comments and greatly appreciate them. I only wish I can more time to spend on this project, but alas it is what it is.**

**As always, I do not own these characters, they belong to Hiro Mashima and Fairy Tail and I thank him for their use in my own creative expressions *bow***

* * *

While Fairy Tail seemed to be in a spiral of one disaster after another, two members were a hundred miles away and oblivious as to what was going on but that didn't mean that they weren't worried about their guild.

"I just hope that she falls asleep ok… and that Mira remembers to tuck her in with her stuffed rabbit." Bisca had been rattling off little reminders since they had left the job site for the night and started making their way to the hotel.

"She will, you know Mira, Asuka couldn't be in better hands at home," Alzack tried to reassure her but he knew that she wasn't going to feel better until they got back to Magnolia.

"I know… and its not Mira that I am worried about its Fairy Tail in general. Especially since the Tenrou Group came back things have gone back to their rowdy ways. I love a good party now as much as I did then, but we didn't have an impressionable daughter back then…" They stood in front of the door to their small hotel and looked at each other, Alzack took his wife's hands and gave them an encouraging squeeze.

"What ever happens, Fairy Tail gets through it. We waited for seven years for them to come back and they did, and we will be able to get through one night without our baby. Whatever we do, we trust in the guild, right?" She smiled at him and squeezed back. "Right."

"Good," he answered her turning to the door. "Now lets get something to eat and go upstairs, we do have the night all to ourselves." She laughed at his tone and he turned back to give her a wink as he pushed door open. Instead of giving him one back though, her eyes got large and she cried, "Watch out!" as she pulled him to the ground. A chair whizzed by where their heads had been and shattered against the doorframe. Alzack pulled his wife closer to him on the floor and peeked up to see what the hell was going on. A Fairy Tail style bar fight between the hotel patrons and what he guessed were the locals was well underway and even though he believed that most if not all of them were not mages it was still quite impressive. He was angry at the thought that they could have taken his wife's head off but nostalgic at the same time because the scene was too familiar even with different people playing it out.

"Just so you know, "Bisca's muffled voice came from under his arm. "I am not taking this as a good omen." Alzack couldn't help but laugh and hold his wife tighter in his arms, as pissed off as she had just sounded he could feel Bisca shaking with silent laughter as well. They stayed on the floor, cuddling and laughing until the hotel owner realized they were there and hurried over in a panic.

"Oh my! Are you guys alright? Did you get hit by something?" The Connells raised their heads to look at him with matching amused expressions and said in union, "We're fine" and Bisca knew that she meant it.

* * *

The moon was already high in the sky when the short man from Twilight Ogre finally woke up, he could smell a campfire burning and realized that he was freezing cold in the dark. He sat up groggily and looked around to find his other two guild mates huddled around a small fire.

"You're finally awake," the fat man called over to him angrily. The short man moved over until he was in front of the fire and warmed his hands gladly. "Can we go back to the guild now boss? I don't think this plan is going to work…"

"No," the fat man replied. "We went back to the guild after you never came back and the big boss said not to come back until we do what we where told to do."

"You mean, you were just going to leave me here?" The short man squeaked.

"It's your own fault for not coming back when you were supposed to," the thin man spoke up but the short man noticed that his voice was low and slurred like he couldn't use his mouth right. He peered at him across the fire and noticed the fat lip and two black eyes, when the thin man noticed he was being stared at he glared back.

"What are you looking at?"

"What happened to you?"

"None of your damn business! What happened to you? Why didn't you come out with the kid like you where supposed to?"

The short man looked down at the fire, "I ended up getting caught… in a barrel." He didn't want to say anything else or they would think he really was crazy.

"How did you end up in a barrel?" The fat man asked him suspiciously. The short man groaned and explained to them what happened with Lisanna and how he managed to escape, he made sure to leave out the parts about the broom though.

"Well, we need to come up with a better plan for tomorrow, or else we will never be allowed back at the guild," the fat man looked at his two partners in crime. "Ok, tomorrow this is what we are going to do…"

* * *

Bisca and Alzack made their way upstairs after having an excellent supper that was complementary from the hotel owner for almost getting injured in the bar fight earlier.

"He was very apologetic," Bisca commented as they made their way to their room.

"He should be, we could have been seriously hurt," Alzack mumbled as he looked in his pockets for their room key.

"Awe, who is grumpy now?" She teased him as he opened their hotel room door. He gave her a flat look and she laughed. "We should be used to it anyway, it was the same thing we have seen and survived in Fairy Tail a million times before." He mirrored her smile as she said the same thing he had been thinking not that long ago.

"Yep, we're just rusty, that's all. After you," he held the door open for his wife gallantly.

"Thank you," she entered the room and turned on the light. "You know what we should do? Take a long , long bath…" she looked at her husband with a twinkle in her eye. His smile grew wider as he took unhooked his gun belt and took off his poncho.

"That sounds good, why don't you go and run the tub and I will be there in a sec?"

"Ok." Bisca went into the bathroom and undressed, putting on her pretty silk bathrobe that she had left in there this morning after they checked in. It had been a 4th year wedding anniversary present from her husband and the dark green jewel toned color complimented the lighter shade of her hair very nicely. It didn't take long before the big tub was filled but Alzack still hadn't made it into the bathroom. Closing the tap, Bisca made her way back out into the main room to see what was holding him up. She found him propped up against the pillows on the bed in his pants with no socks or shirt on, snoring away. She sighed and smiled, he looked too peaceful to wake up now. Very carefully she climbed on the bed and curled up beside him, pulling a thin extra blanket over them that had been folded at the foot of the bed. Her last thoughts before falling into a tired sleep like her husband was how happy she would be by this time tomorrow back with her baby girl. She smiled and didn't even notice that the light was still on.

* * *

It was well past midnight by the time the Fairy Tail war party had decided that they were getting nowhere and they might as well go home to bed. Mira looked over to the only table that still had people sitting at it, the rest of the guild having gone home hours ago. Her younger siblings and the Raijinshuu were all sleeping soundly in various positions, Lisanna sandwiched between Evergreen and Bixlow cuddling Asuka in her arms. They all looked so peaceful that Mira hated to wake them up.

"THUNDER GOD TRIBE ASSEMBLE!" Mira jumped at the bellow that came from behind her and turned to find Laxus standing there.

"You scared the heck out of me!" She chided him in a soft voice.

"Sorry, Mira," he mumbled. "Well it didn't work anyway." Mira turned back to look at the table and sure enough, everyone was still sleeping except for the little girl. She was rubbing her eyes and looking around for the noise that had jolted her awake, but when she saw Mira she lifted her arms from around Lisanna and held them out.

"Awe, come here sweetie." Mira picked her up and Lisanna slumped forward like the rest of them with her head on the table.

"They really are knocked out, huh?" Laxus stood beside Mira and poked Bixlow in the back with his index finger. "Hey Bixlow! Man, wake up!" The big mage just groaned in his sleep and buried his face deeper into his arms on the table.

The blonde haired man frowned and crossed his arms. "Pathetic," he grumbled.

"Leave them alone, its late and they are tired." Mira turned and looked at the bar that Lisanna had cleaned thoroughly. She then got another one of her wicked ideas in her head and looked up at Laxus.

"Hey, I need to go check the kitchen and lock up, do you mind?" She held Asuka out to him who also looked up at him curiously.

Laxus didn't understand at first. "Mind what?" When Mira pushed Asuka closer he clued in. "Hold the kid? No way! I don't know how to do that," he took a step back and put up his hands in protest.

"Of course you can, here take her." She moved Asuka closer again and this time Laxus tentatively reached out and took her. "Be back quick though ok? Mirajane?" He looked around but Mira had already vanished to the kitchen. Laxus and Asuka eyed each other with suspicion, neither trusting the other completely.

"Just sit still and don't do anything funny kid," he told her, trying to use his best tough guy voice. Asuka narrowed her eyes at him but then noticed something on his face that suddenly she really wanted to touch. She held out her hands to him but was far from reaching her goal. "What do you want now?" He asked her annoyed and relaxed his arms a bit so that she could come closer. He wasn't expecting her to touch his face so when the little hands made contact he flinched a little. "Hey, stop that," he tried to make his arms move to pull her away from him again but found he couldn't. Her one hand found the scar by his left eye and she poked at it gently with a finger. "What kid, you've never seen a scar before?" He knew that couldn't be true, Fairy Tail mages were all covered in scars. He didn't understand what was so special about his lightening bolt eye scar that she had to keep touching it. "Mira!" He called for her to come and get this kid because she was starting to make him really uncomfortable. He hadn't noticed that Mira had been watching him from the bar with a smile on her face.

"I'm here, you didn't have to yell." She moved over to him, holding two large buckets that looked heavy.

"Come and get this kid… And what are you carrying?" Mira set her buckets down and took Asuka from Laxus, cradling her on her hip.

"Ice water," she replied wickedly.  
"Ice water?" Again he didn't understand her meaning, then it dawned on him. "Ohhh, my pleasure." Then he picked up each bucket and emptied it on the sleeping mages, one for each side of the table. The yells, yowls, curses and gasps of surprise that follow were definitely the most satisfying fun of the evening.

Then Asuka, Mira and her two soggy younger siblings walked home in silence, Lisanna and Elfman glaring at their older sister with her twisted sense of humor. Little did any of them know that tomorrow would be even more eventful that today had been, and not in a humorous way.

* * *

**I always thought that Laxus would be great with kids and after seeing him with Mavis during the GMG Arc I knew I definitely had to write in something. Mira has an evil streak in her sometimes, I would bet that she really has thrown a couple buckets of ice water in her days as a bar maid! I hope the next chapter will be up soon, as always, thanks for reading and I will be back!**


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